1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a member management system, and more particularly to the member management system that conducts a member management using a store terminal provided in a store.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, when a maker sells products at a store, a customer registers as a member. Then, various services, such as points corresponding to a purchase amount, a preferential introduction of a new product, or a like, are conducted for the member. In addition, in each store and a maker side, various information collected from each member is reflected to a product development and a product promotion. Conventionally, a member registration is conducted at each store.
In a case in which a cosmetics product is exampled as a product, a conventional member management method will now be described with reference to FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, a cosmetics maker 1 has contracted with a plurality of stores 2A through 2C. For example, the store 2A is a private store, the store 2B is a drug store, and the store 2C is a department store.
In order for a customer 3 (specifically referred to as members 3A through 3C) to register as a member of the cosmetics maker 1, the customer 3 visits any one of stores 2A through 2C and then a necessary procedure is conducted. When the customer 3 registers as the member, the customer 3 fills in necessary items of a registration form. In detail, the customer 3 fills in items of name, contact information, attributes (birthday, occupation, unmarried/married, days off, and a like), various information (hobby, yes or no of skin trouble, and a like) referred when the customer 3 purchases the product.
At each of stores 2A through 2C, based on the registration form filled out by the customer 3, each of member management sheets 4A through 4C is created for each member. In addition to information from the registration form filled out by the customer 3, each of the member management sheets further includes items for a date when the member visits after the member registration, a product which the member purchased, a conversation content and a counseling content provided by a sales person to the member when the member purchased the product, or a like to fill in. In the stores (the drug store and the department store) 2B and 2C, a POS (Point Of Sale) is installed to input information corresponding to the member management sheets 4B and 4C, respectively, and then, each computer 5 stores relative information.
Accordingly, by creating and referring to each of the member management sheets 4A through 4C for each member, a replacement cycle of a cosmetics product, a basic profile related to a makeup, and a like can be seen for each of members 3A through 3C. Moreover, the conversation content and the counseling content previously provided by a sales person to the member when the member purchased can be seen from the member management sheets 4A through 4C. Consequently, a new conversation and a new counseling are properly performed when the members 3A through 3C visit the stores 2A through 2C at a next time.
Moreover, in each of the stores 2A through 2C, a statistics process is conducted for the member management sheets 4A through 4C periodically. Each of the stores 2A through 2C has a plurality of members. Accordingly, by conducting the statistics process for the member sheets 4A through 4C, an overall sales trend of the product (for example, information indicating that cosmetics related to skin whitener are purchased more, or a like), a product purchase age group (for example, information indicating of which age group members mainly purchase the product, or a like), a price range of the most purchased product (for example, information indicating in which price range the product can be sold at the highest volume), and a like can be seen.
As an advantage for the member registration, points corresponding to a money amount of the product that the customer 3 purchased is given to the customer 3 and then a point reserve service corresponding to an accumulated point number is performed. Conventionally, this point management as described above is performed at each of the stores 2A through 2C.
However, in the conventional member management method, since the member management is performed by each of the stores 2A through 2C separately, an accuracy of information obtained from each member registered at each of the stores 2A through 2C is not sufficient. Thus, it is difficult to provide a service with higher quality to the members 3A through 3C. Details of a difficulty as described above will now be described with reference to FIG. 2.
In FIG. 1, one example is described in which three different members 3A through 3C visit three different stores 2A through 2C, respectively, and then register as members. On the other hand, in FIG. 2, another example is described in which a single customer 3 visits each of the stores 2A through 2C and registers as a member at each of the stores 2A through 2C.
Recently, many types of stores sell cosmetics. The stores 2A through 2C such as the private store, the drug store, and the department store, and other types of stores sell cosmetics. Since a customer base depends on the store type, each store decides a product line and arranges products to display based on the store type.
Accordingly, the same customer 3 purchases a cleansing cream that is a relatively cheaper product, at the drug store in neighborhood and purchases whitening cosmetics that is a relatively more expensive product, at the department store. Moreover, the customer 3 needs to register as a member at each store where the customer 3 purchases cosmetics products.
As shown in FIG. 2, it is assumed that the customer 3 purchases a cosmetics product as follows at the store 2A and registers as a member:
purchase date: March 1st
purchase product: face lotion xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d
counseling content: dry-rough-skin care
conversation content: overseas trip for diving, soon
point of purchase: 15 points.
In the store 2A, the member management sheet 4A is created based on the registration form filled out by the customer 3 and the purchase date (March 1st), the purchase product (face lotion xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d), the counseling content (dry-rough-skin care), and the conversation content (overseas trip for diving, soon) are additionally input. The member management sheet 4A is maintained by the store 2A.
After that, instead of visiting the store 2A, the customer 3 visits the store 2B different from the store 2A, purchases a cosmetics product as follows, and then the customer 3 registers as a member, again:
purchase date: June 1st
purchase product: face lotion xe2x80x9cbxe2x80x9d
counseling content: ultraviolet counterplan
conversation content: canceled overseas trip
point of purchase: 10 points.
In the store 2B, the member management sheet 4B is created based on the registration form filled out by the customer 3 and the purchase date (June 1st), the purchase product (face lotion xe2x80x9cbxe2x80x9d), the counseling content (ultraviolet counterplan), and the conversation content (canceled overseas trip) are additionally input. The member management sheet 4B is maintained by the store 2B.
After that, instead of visiting the stores 2A and 2B, the customer 3 visits the store 2C different from the stores 2A and 2B, purchases a cosmetics product as follows, and then the customer 3 registers as a member, again:
purchase date: September 1st
purchase product: face lotion xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d
counseling content: fine wrinkle counterplan
conversation content: won in a tennis tournament
point of purchase: 10 points.
In the store 2C, the member management sheet 4C is created based on the registration form filled out by the customer 3 and the purchase date (September 1st), the purchase product (face lotion xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d), the counseling content (fine wrinkle counterplan), and the conversation content (won in a tennis tournament) are additionally input. The member management sheet 4C is maintained by the store 2C.
It is assumed that after that, the customer 3 visits the store 2A on December 1st, again, and purchases another cosmetics product xe2x80x9c2axe2x80x9d. In this case, a salesperson of the store 2A corresponds to and counsels the customer 3 as a member, based on the member management sheet 4A based on purchase data as of March 1st and the member registration.
That is, the customer 3 actually changed a cosmetics type from the cosmetics product xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d to the cosmetics product xe2x80x9cbxe2x80x9d and further to the cosmetics product xe2x80x9ccxe2x80x9d. However, the salesperson misjudges that the customer 3 still uses the same cosmetics product xe2x80x9caxe2x80x9d.
Similarly, as for counseling, even though the customer 3 is counseled for the ultraviolet counterplan and the fine wrinkle counterplan, the salesperson misjudges that the customer 3 needs a counsel only for a dry-rough-skin care. Furthermore, the salesperson can know only about information as of March 1st. Thus, the salesperson may incorrectly ask the customer, xe2x80x9cHow was your overseas trip?xe2x80x9d
Furthermore, even though the point of purchase for the customer 3 is totally 35 points, only 15 points are accumulated available for the store 2A.
As described above, in the conventional member management method, the customer 3 may register as a member many times at the stores 2A through 2C. In this case, information related to the customer 3 is spread to the stores 2A through 2C. Thus, the accuracy of the information related to the customer 3 becomes lower at each of the stores 2A through 2C. Accordingly, because of a lower accuracy of the information at each of the stores 2A through 2C, the information at the lower accuracy is transmitted to the cosmetics maker 1. Consequently, the cosmetics maker 1 cannot properly conduct a development plan of a new product, a sales promotion plan, and a like.
Also, since in each of the stores 2A through 2C, a salesperson corresponds to and counsels the customer 3 as a member, based on each of the member management sheets 4A through 4C, it is difficult to obtain accurate information related to the customer 3. Accordingly, proper services, such as a proper conversation, a proper counseling, and a like), cannot be performed for the customer 3. Moreover, since the point of purchase is maintained at each of the stores 2A through 2C, total purchase points of purchase of the stores 2A through 2C cannot be considered. Consequently, a service of a point reduction is not sufficiently performed for the customer 3.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide a system for managing members in which the above-mentioned problems are eliminated.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide the system for managing members in which an accuracy of information obtained from each member can be improved and a high quality service to the member can be provided.
The above objects of the present invention are achieved by a system for managing members including: a plurality of store terminals provided to a plurality of stores, respectively, in which customers purchase a product; and a server for managing member information of registered customers of the customer, the registered customer being registered as the members, wherein: the store terminal includes: a part conducting a member registration for the customers; a part obtaining the member information of the members; a part requesting the member information of the server; and a part outputting the member information sent from the server that corresponds to a request of the member information, the server includes: a store information database storing store information of each of the plurality of stores; a member information database storing the member information; a part centralizing and storing the member information sent from the plurality of stores for each of the members in the member information database; and a part sending the member information stored in the member information database to a store of the plurality of stores based on the request from a store terminal of the store, the store terminal being one of the plurality of store terminals.
According to the present invention, even if the member registration is conducted at the plurality of different stores and the member purchases product at the plurality of different stores, the server centralizes the member information sent from the store terminal provided at each of the stores and stores in the member information database provided in server for each member (that is, the member information is grouped for each member).
Therefore, even if the member information related to the same member is input and sent to the server separately from the different stores, the member information is not be duplicated. Accordingly, it is possible to improve the accuracy of the member information.